Rivalry
by Charchisto
Summary: A suggested one-shot. Vlad, Ingrid and Malik are fangcuffed together on a desert island, the sun high in the sky. Will they survive? And will they be able to free themselves without driving each other crazy? Warning: Season 5 spoilers.


Rivalry

_Hello everyone, I'm back. Though it may be only briefly._

_I'm sorry I have been gone so long, but doing a degree tends to give you only time for note taking and essay writing, rather than story writing._

_Anyway, I have finally got a brief respite from it so I decided to write this one shot suggested by ShadowVampireGirl on my forum._

_Hope you are all enjoying season 5, I really am. This season I think is the best yet._

_After this I will try and finish my season 4 outtakes and then season 5. Then I will publish what I worked on over Christmas – if I manage to finish it anytime soon because it's a long one. Then I will attempt to go onto premature… possibly, I'm thinking of only making it a single fanfiction now I have seen season 5._

_Anyway, here is my little oneshot in the meantime. Oh and this will contain season 5 spoilers, so be warned._

_I don't own Young Dracula._

Vlad blinked seeing above him, he could see the sun. But, it wasn't hitting him. He was hidden under the shadow of some trees.

"Not again," he muttered, remembering his experience when he was in the dreamworld. "Please, not again!"

He began to pull himself up when he felt a tug on the left wrist. He looked down alarmed to see he was cuffed, and not cuffed to something, but to his brother Malik.

Vlad groaned under his breath, he didn't trust Malik at all. He trusted his sister more than him, a sister who appeared to be fang-cuffed to Malik as well. Only she was attached to his other arm.

Both Vlad's half-siblings were sleeping, making Vlad roll his eyes. Being full vampire meant that they slept through a nice sunny day like this. Vlad on the other hand wasn't bothered, being only half-vampire had the advantage of not minding whether he slept in the day or the night.

Slowly he began to warily look around, his eyes darting to spot any sights of who had done this to them. He saw nothing but tall trees, and a sunlit beach.

Vlad then pulled himself into a sitting position and began to think his way through this.

Last thing he remembered, he was sleeping in his coffin. The Shadow Warriors were going, and his breather family were planning to leave. So Vlad decided to sleep through the night to recuperate and make sure he was awake for when his family left in the morning.

Then he was here.

It had to be Ramanga, Vlad decided. Who else would do this? The three of them could be ashed by the sun any moment. Or so Ramanga would think. Vlad wasn't sure if the sun would affect him or not, he hadn't attempted it since he had had his cold. Quite frankly Vlad didn't even want to try, even if it didn't bother him he wanted to keep that kind of ability to himself.

Shaking his head, Vlad looked to his siblings and saw them still sleeping.

"Lazy bats," Vlad muttered to himself. But then Vlad was glad they were unconscious, they wouldn't extend that kind of hospitality to him, and Vlad knew that. Still, Vlad would rather be the only one awake because he knew there was going to be trouble when they did wake up.

The hours passed slowly, Vlad tried everything he could to try and release himself from his brother. He even tried using his fire powers to burn and melt the cuffs. It didn't work.

He sighed. "I am certain I have broken out of these before." Vlad remembered when he broke out of the ones his father used on him. But, he couldn't figure whether it was power of brute force that allowed him to free himself. He had tried both, without success.

Vlad watched as the sun set and felt his brother stir next to him.

"What the flapping?!" He jolted up waking Ingrid.

"OW!" She practically screeched. "Why does my wrist hurt!?"

The youngest sibling cringed seeing the anger on their faces as they realised their situation.

"Great, I'm fangcuffed to a traitor, who is fangcuffed to a mongrel!" Ingrid hissed as she sat up. "What did I do to deserve this?!"

Vlad's lips twitched, trying not to laugh, he could think of plenty of reasons Ingrid deserved this. Malik met his eyes, and gave him a knowing smile. Obviously Malik was thinking the same thing as him.

"I'm guessing Ramanga did this?" Malik gestured to the cuffs with his head, given his hands were literally tied up.

"Your guess is as good as mine," he responded. "I woke up here about… three hours ago I guess."

"We've been asleep all that time?" Malik looked surprised.

"Who cares?!" Ingrid demanded. "When I find the person who did this, I will dust them!"

"Surprise, surprise," Vlad muttered.

Malik looked to his sister. "I didn't think you could ever ash anyone Ingrid. What have you been up to?"

"She's being her usual self," Ingrid scowled at Vlad threateningly.

"Meaning?" Malik asked.

"She's trying to get to the top of the VHC," Vlad shrugged, unconcerned. It really didn't bother him at all. Soon he would be Grand High Vampire and then even if Ingrid was head of the council, it wouldn't make a shred of difference. No one could overrule the Grand High Vampire.

"Nice one," Malik said approvingly. "Mind giving me a seat when you get there."

"In your dreams," she snapped viciously.

"Well," Vlad interrupted. "First things first. We need to get out of here."

"And get this cuffs off," Malik added moving his arms making his siblings move as well.

"That could be tricky," his brother informed him. "I tried everything. I've broken out of fangcuffs before but what I did didn't work. These must be some special cuffs."

"And we would be bound to each other," Ingrid added irritably. "I don't see the point. It's not exactly torture."

Malik nodded him agreement while Vlad shook his head.

"The sun is strong here," Vlad pointed out. "It would ash yo… us in a second. Plus I don't think this is physical warfare going here. More like psychological warfare."

"Psychological warfare?" Malik looked confused.

Ingrid, however nodded slightly. "It's true, cuffing us together will probably drive the three of us crazy. I mean we don't exactly get along."

"Also," Vlad added. "It's a good method to get at Dad. Put us all together and threaten him while we drive each other batty."

The three Dracula's after a few rows managed to get themselves up and looking around the beach.

"Well this is nice," Vlad liked the beach, it felt very human.

"Yeah… it's almost romantic," Malik said his voice thick with sarcasm and winked at Ingrid.

"Uh," Ingrid complained. "Bat breath." She then looked at her younger sibling. "You would like it here breather boy."

Vlad shrugged uncaringly. He was determined not to let his siblings drive him crazy here. Ingrid and Malik were already practically at each other's throats. The only reason they hadn't fought yet was because of their hands being tied up.

"There has to be a way out," Vlad said trying to cheer things up. "I mean we could try flying…"

"While fangcuffed?" Malik frowned. "That's like flying with your wings clipped."

"Your wings only," Ingrid added. "We might be able… to well carry you."

"It'll just be a matter of getting these flaming cuffs off," Vlad added.

Ingrid scowled. "I have an idea… I don't like it… but there be be someone who can help us."

Vlad looked at his sister suspiciously. "Who would you know that could help us get out of _fangcuffs_? Are they a slayer by any chance?"

Malik then turned to glare at his sister too.

"No," She looked almost embarrassed. "He isn't!"

"But he is a breather," Malik guessed and sniggered.

Vlad didn't feel surprised. He remembered Will and what happened to him. How it hurt Ingrid so much and almost led to his death.

"You just be careful Ingrid," He warned his sister. "We cannot have a repeat of 5 years ago."

Ingrid almost snarled at her brother. "It's not like that."

Vlad looked at her, Ingrid could see the worry and disbelief in his eyes. Vlad knew better than anyone that Dracula's were prone to loving breathers. Their father had done it twice, probably more; Vlad had gone through it once; Malik may well have gone through it, but they didn't know for certain; Ingrid had been through it with Will and it sounded like she was on her seconds.

"Whatever," Vlad said. "Let's just go!"

"If I am never flying with you two ever again!" Malik shouted as they materialised.

"Keep your voice down," Vlad snapped looking around the dark streets. "We're in Liverpool."

Ingrid nodded and pulled Malik to one of the terraced houses.

The street was clean… ish. There was trace evidence that it had been a Friday night, there were beer cans and smashed glass on the pavement, with the occasional greasy paper blowing by.

At number 24, Ingrid knocked at the door. She did it loudly as to intentionally wake up the person inside.

Vlad could hear inside a male human curse and saw several lights come on.

Eventually the door opened and a guy who looked in his mid twenties appeared.

"Ingrid!" He greeted her happily. "Here at this time." He tutted. "Not like you."

Ingrid scowled. "Piers, I'm not here for your flirtations." She gestured to her cuffed arms.

Malik looked at Vlad and mouthed "Piers," Malik looked like he was going to laugh and Vlad had to admit, he felt like laughing too. Ingrid had really given them material to use against her here.

Piers peered out spotting the problem. "Ah," he eyes Ingrid wearily. "You've been a bad girl I see. Nothing changes."

"We're her brothers," Vlad told him. "Ingrid thinks you can help us get uncuffed."

Piers shrugged. "You're al vampires right…"

"Keep your voice down," Ingrid hissed as Malik and Vlad demanded. "You told him?!"

"He guessed," she snapped back at her siblings.

"Can't you just break free or something?" He looked at them like it was obvious.

"Tried that," Vlad said.

"Fire?"

"Yep,"

"Brute force?"

"Yep,"

"Turning into fog?"

"Yep,"

"Transforming?"

"Yep,"

"Ouch," Piers nodded. "I see the problem then."

"How the bats do you know so much about vampires?" Malik demanded.

"Vampire whizz," Vlad guessed thinking of Robin and Piers nodded. Vlad looked at his sister smirking and remembering how Robin was almost the same.

"It's not what you think," she insisted.

Vlad shrugged. "I never said anything. It's just he reminds me of Robin."

"Who's Robin?" Malik and Pier's said at the same time.

"An old friend of mine," Vlad shrugged. "He loved vampires too. He knew a lot about them… he…"

"Was a freak," Ingrid finished and Vlad scowled at her. "Piers you must have some tech that can free us."

Piers nodded. "I'll be back."

"Tech," Vlad muttered and looked at his sister. "He was the one who gave you that computer!"

Ingrid didn't say anything which Vlad took as confirmation.

"No wonder you said to come here, he probably can use his tech to figure out how to break us out!" Vlad said. "Ingrid, you're a genius sometimes."

Ingrid raised her eyebrows in surprised. "Wow, a compliment from the Chosen One. Now that is a knew one."

"So you have a breather best friend Ingrid," Malik looked at Ingrid.

"I'm just using him."

"For what?"

"To get to the top of the VHC," Vlad guessed. "It's why you got that technology in your room, he has been helping you hack into the VHC and find out all about the members of the VHC."

Ingrid shrugged. "Just learning who I am working with."

"You said that before," Vlad said. "No point in denying it Ingrid. I know you well enough to know you will never, ever change."

"Well done little brother," she said sarcastically. "You know only a small portion of me."

"I know you better than you think," Vlad informed her.

"Are you threatening me?"

"No, I'm pointing out, that you need to remember that both me and Malik know about your plan. You make one wrong move and we could tell them and have you thrown off the council… for good." Vlad told her.

"Here," Piers came down with a set of tools and put on his glasses. Ingrid recognised them as the ones he used to scan the books.

"Ah," he pulled them off. He then went into a tool box and came out with a safety pin. He put the pin into a small hole that joined the cuffs and they suddenly burst free. He did the same for the other ones and they came off too.

"There is always a flaw," he grinned. Vlad had a feeling he was quoting something, but he didn't know what.

"Thanks," Vlad smiled and rubbed his free wrist. Malik nodded at Piers, not thanking him and flitted off.

"I'll leave you two along," Vlad smirked at his sister and flew off.

Piers looked at Ingrid and gave her a grin. "Someone must be after you to do that to you."

"Yeah well," Ingrid shrugged. "You're not to get involved."

"Why?" He asked. Ingrid didn't reply, she didn't want him hurt that was why. But she turned round flinching slightly and flew off, hoping she never got fangcuffed to her brothers again.

_Hope you liked that!_

_Thank you for reading! I'll get to my other fics ASAP._

_C_

_xx_


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